Battle for Esturia

An 80's style, retro RPG which seems to be influenced mainly by Ultima games, maybe with a sprinkle of Zelda as well in terms of dungeons (usually has a boss blocked by a special key). It is a party based RPG with turn based battles that take place directly on the map. Like most Ultima's, you start with one character and all others are found during game play and are set classes. The game is open world, although the world is smaller than most RPG's. Unlike Ultima, the dungeons are also the same 2d, looking straight down view. The controls are very simple, point and click for movement or using skills, etc with no keyboard needed (never tried controller so not sure if it supports that). This is a fun little RPG. Although it looks like Ultima, it is a simpler game and much smaller in scale. The story is straight forward and pretty standard (defeat the big baddie) but well done and executed and to the point. No walls of text or a bunch of unnecessary lore (just what you need to know), which is kind of refreshing. The game is mainly about combat and exploration, with the combat being fun with a good variety of enemies. Each class has it's own skills (about 5 or 6 I think by games end) and each can have multiple points placed into it to make it better. These give you tactical options, and for spell casters will be the backbone for everything you do. Characters also have abilities and these have a direct impact on things like how fast you move, how much damage you do, etc. Pretty standard but gives some good options such a wounding shot that slows enemies, retaliatory strikes, area attacks and spells such as heal and fireball. By games end you will be close to maxing out all your skills, but not quite assuming you do the side quests. Difficulty isn't bad but some later battles will require some thought with a handful of creatures that can instantly kill you or cast some nasty spells. Exploration was good but was maybe a bit more linear than it needed to be as areas are locked off until you complete some quest basically. There is some choice in the game but I couldn't say how it effects the game. Seems like some characters might leave if you do certain things. The negatives are pretty minor. The game was short, okay with me but might bother some. It felt about right in length though, it probably isn't deep enough to make long game out of. The log would often fill up and not show what you wanted to see and had no way to scroll back. As that is the only way to see how much damage you did or what spell was cast on you, it was mildly annoying in a few cases. Of course this game is retro so the graphics and controls won't work for every body. Interface was fine but could gave been better. Probably the biggest negative was the ending, with paragraph of text followed by a "The End" screen. That's it really, a fun little RPG that will probably mainly appeal to older people due to it's looks. It is a great game to play for 30 mins or so at a time and just relax and do some adventuring.